How To Add Background To Photoshop On Mac OSX

I have been using a Mac now for a little over 6 months and at this point I am pretty used to it however there are still things I find that I want to customize to be more how they used to work when I used Windows as my daily driver. The great thing is there is always a way to make it work on OSX and that was not always the case on Windows 7. I edit a lot of images for articles that I post online and so I am constantly using Photoshop and one thing that has really been annoying about Photoshop is the fact that it has a transparent background by default on the Mac. I always figured there was a way to set it but never spent the time to look but that changed tonight and below I describe how to set a grey background for Photoshop on the OSX just like how the Photoshop default background is on Windows.

Set Photoshop Default Background On Mac Similar To Windows Photoshop Grey Background:

First off I am sure some people actually like the transparent background however I do not like it for a couple reasons including the fact that it is hard to concentrate on what you are doing and the second is when Photoshop is active it stretches the entire screen as shown in the below example image.

Adobe Photoshop On Mac OSX Lion 10.7 With Transparent Background:

For me the way Photoshop displays is annoying and I was hoping that adding a background was easy. Luckily it is very easy to set a background for Adobe Photoshop on OSX by clicking Window in the top navigation menu of Photoshop and then by scrolling down the menu to click Application Frame as shown in the below example image.

Adobe Photoshop On OSX Window Menu: Click Application Frame:

Once you click Application Frame you will be pleasantly surprised by the grey background that you are used to. Now I feel like I can concentrate with the solid grey background of Photoshop on the Mac and it is nice to be able to adjust the window size when I want to do so as shown in the below example image.

Adobe Photoshop On OSX With Grey Background Similar To Photoshop On Windows:

If you prefer the transparent background of Photoshop you can always click the Window menu item Application Frame and it will immediately switch back. Hope that helps people who cannot concentrate on a million things at once like myself!